


Regressive Tendencies

by LittleFandomStories



Category: Big Hero 6 (2014)
Genre: Age Play, Infantilism, Non-Sexual Age Play, little!Hiro, little!Tadashi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-04-28
Updated: 2016-08-21
Packaged: 2018-03-26 06:20:08
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 19,017
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3840298
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LittleFandomStories/pseuds/LittleFandomStories
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There are plenty of superheroes in the world if you know where to look, and this time one happened to be around just in time to rescue Tadashi from the fire. Tracking that hero down gets them in over their heads. Who knew they reacted to trauma with regression?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Action

**Author's Note:**

> This is an idea I had bouncing around, because I was curious about the idea of little!Hamadas, and decided to put the first couple of chunks up here. Please, feel free to let me know what you think. Positive feedback means i'll write more, none means ill leave it as is.

Hiro stared dumbstruck where his brother had just dashed into the burning building. What was he supposed to do? Hiro started towards the building, maybe he could get in there in time…

“Hey kid, Get back!” a hand grasped Hiro by the arm, “I’ll blow any minute now!”

“My brother is in there!” Hiro struggled, “I have to help him!”

“You won’t help anyone charging in there kid. I’ll be right back with him okay? Just stay here.”

Hiro watched the figure, that’s all he was through the tears in Hiro’s eyes, streak into the building.

“Please.” He whispered to himself, “Please.”

That’s when the building exploded and there were hands everywhere holding Hiro back from diving into the blaze.

“Tadashi!” he cried, “Tadashi!”

“There’s someone coming out!”

A figure strode calmly through the remains of the building, unbothered by the debris and flames. Cradled in his arms was a form Hiro could spot anywhere, his brother was the most important thing in his life, and he broke free from the people holding him back.

“Whoa, whoa. Back up kid, EMTs are going to need room to work.”

Hiro blinked, watching as the man’s helmet unfolded from goggles and a mask to a simple pair glasses. The man, despite the soot in his green hair, smiled at Hiro as he set Tadashi down.

“Here, look at this.”

Hiro took the offered screen, holographic he noted, and stared at the data scrolling across the screen. He knew the heart rate one but everything else was a mystery to him, his eyebrows furrowing in concentration. A green armored hand reached over his shoulder and began to explain what each graph meant, and how the bit of red on the body display only meant that he had hit his head, the red in the chest meant he had breathed in some smoke. Hiro never noticed the EMTs rushing in to look over Tadashi, checking him over.

“See kid? He is fine.”

Hiro nodded, keeping his eyes glued on the screen. Tadashi was okay, he was okay. He heart was beating, he was breathing. Tadashi was okay.

“C’mon kid.” Hiro was vaguely aware of being lifted into the air, “They’re taking him to the hospital.

“Wait, the hospital?” that snapped Hiro out of it as he squirmed, “Why? He’s okay. Why are we going to the hospital?”

“They need to treat him there, just to be sure there’s nothing permanent.”

Hiro blinked as he was set down on his feet, observing the durable weave and plating of the man’s armor. He couldn’t place the metal, but he was fascinated watching the material shift and ripple. Hiro yelped as the gauntlet folded in on itself and revealed a regular hand underneath it all.

“Go with your brother kid. Make sure he’s okay.”

With that the man turned around with a wave and jogged off into the crowd. Once he was out of sight, Hiro was forced to sit down as the EMTs slammed the doors to the ambulance shut. As he sat in an out of the way corner, he had to leave the EMTs room to work, Hiro focused on the holographic screen with Tadashi’s readout.

He’d be okay.

 

* * *

 

Hiro blinked in confusion at the dark green haired man sitting in Aunt Cass’ shop, there was no way that…

“Hiro, what’s the matter?”

Tadashi had been forced to stop walking when Hiro did, his hand trapped in the iron vice that was known as his little brother’s grip. It had been a week since the explosion, and his rescue, and Hiro refused to let him out of sight, often holding his hand or his sleeve.

He was lucky that Hiro and he had long since lost the idea of personal privacy with each other, otherwise going to the bathroom would be way more awkward than it already was.

“That guy over there, with the green hair. I think he’s the guy who pulled you out.”

Tadashi couldn’t remember much after he had fallen while going in after Callaghan, the smoke did that he was told, but he did remember a lot of green as he was being pulled out. The readout, which Hiro had only shown him once, was green and Hiro clearly remembered green hair. So maybe it was him after all.

As if he knew they were talking about him, the man looked up from his coffee and waved at them with a smile before returning to the pile of pastries in front of him.

“Are you sure Hiro?” Tadashi didn’t want to go accost some stranger because he might be the man who saved his life.

“I’m certain.” Hiro tore his eyes away and stared at Tadashi, “He waved at us and I recognize those glasses.”

“Okay, lets….” Tadashi turned to look back at the man but the table was empty save a few bills tossed on the table.

They heard the door open and close, and turned fast enough to catch a glimpse of green hair strolling along the sidewalk outside. When Hiro dragged him out the door, the smaller boy was stronger than he let on, Tadashi didn’t see the man anywhere.

“I think we lost him Hiro.”

Tadashi whipped around and glared as Hiro swore violently, the younger boy climbing up a lamp post to get a better vantage point. After a few minutes, taking the time to rub the feeling back into hand, Tadashi hefted Hiro over his shoulder and carried him back into the shop.

They never noticed, on the roof of the building right next to the shop, the green haired man sat there watching them. With a curious noise and one last bite of his breakfast pastry, he rose to his feet and took off running across the rooftops.

 

* * *

 

“I’ve got it!”

Tadashi blinked blearily at his brother’s exclamation. Of course Hiro would make some discovery on the same night Tadashi had managed to get tired enough to pass out, his life would be too easy otherwise.

“What Hiro?”

“I can find the man with green hair!” Hiro spun around in his chair, “You know, the man who saved your life and we haven’t had a chance to thank for it yet? Yeah, I can find him.”

“Why now though?” Tadashi rubbed his eyes as he sat up, “It’s almost midnight.”

“Because he’s close! Just a few blocks away, look!”

Hiro scrambled across the room and shoved the holographic screen in his brother’s face. Rather than the usual readout, which Tadashi was certain had something to do with his health, it showed a map of the city with two blinking green dots. When he looked closely, one was on their house and the other was moving rapidly towards the shipping yard.

“Hiro…” Tadashi warned.

He knew what Hiro was thinking about doing and it was a terrible idea, right up there with sneaking out to hustle bot fighters. It was yet another thing that Hiro was going to try that could get him killed.

“I’m going Tadashi. I have to chase this while I can.” Hiro pulled the screen away and made for the door, “I can’t let him leave without thanking him.”

“You’re going to get yourself killed!” Tadashi hissed as he scrambled to stop him.

Hiro danced out of reach as Tadashi lunged to grab him, his eyes narrowed as he glared at his brother.

“Just like running into a burning building.”

Tadashi froze, the words hitting him like a physical blow. Hiro was right, how could he stop Hiro when he had gone headfirst into a burning building. With that in mind, Tadashi pulled on a jacket and sweatpants before quietly chasing Hiro out the door. If Hiro was going to do something stupid, the least Tadashi could do is be there to make sure it didn’t get too bad.

Recalling the map Hiro had shown him, Tadashi bolted down the street as soon as he managed to sneak out the house. Hiro didn’t get more than a block ahead of him before Tadashi caught up to him. Hiro blinked up from the screen as Tadashi pulled up in step next to him before grabbing his hand.

“Lead the way. We do this together.”

“Right.”

 

“Are you sure he’s here?” Tadashi asked, glancing around at the various shipping containers.

“Yeah, I’m sure.” Hiro was biting his nail as he stared down at the map, “It says he’s right here.”

“The real question boys,” a hollow mechanical voice echoed from above them, “what in the world are you two doing here?”

The brothers’ eyes widened as they looked up towards the source. Crouched on top of a stack of containers was a familiar figure dressed in high-tech green armor, his helmet tilted slightly to the left as he studied the two boys in front of him. With a leap, he landed in a crouch on the ground.

“Seriously, what are you doing here?” The single visor band on the helmet, a light blue that shifted shades as light moved around it, managed to accurately express his annoyance.

Tadashi bit his lip at the tone, it was eerily similar to the one Aunt Cass took on very rare occasions when she was upset with them.

“We came to tell you thank you.”

Hiro, of course, was completely unaffected.

“I’ve been in this city for weeks.” the heavy armor made no sound as he drew closer, “And you pick now, midnight and at the shipping yard, to figure out the homing feature on that screen. And then come after me. You could have come and found me tomorrow when I was eating your aunt’s great breakfast pastries.”

“You’re…mad?” Tadashi ventured.

The man shook his head, “I’m wearing power armor. At the shipping yard. At midnight. Do you know what that means in superhero terms?”

“No?” Hiro’s voice was shaking just a bit. He didn’t know the specifics but he did have a pretty good guess.

“That.”

The boys followed the pointed finger, paling as the water bubbled and boiled as something began to rise up.

“You two need to hide. Now.”

Before they could respond, they were shoved behind a shipping container with a strong warning to stay there before the man strode off. What broke the water first was a sea of black carrying a piece of mechanical equipment, Hiro could vaguely make out a white circle with a red bird design on it, followed by a figure wearing a red and white mask.

“Hiro!” Tadashi tugged Hiro back into hiding, “out of sight.”

Hiro wrenched his arm free, “I have to look! Those look like my micro-bots.”

“Hiro!” Tadashi hissed.

“Just shut up and let me watch!” Hiro finally hissed, glaring at Tadashi.

Tadashi frowned, ignoring how much that stung, before nodding but keeping a firm grip on Hiro’s sweatshirt. He was going to pull him out if it got too bad.

He was also definitely ignoring how he had to blink away tears. Hiro didn’t mean it.

 

The two figures stared each other down, white mask and green helmet. In an instant a wave of black crashed down where the green armored man had been an instant ago.

“Fine.” the man crouched a few feet away, “Agent V, online.”

The armor, formerly fluid and shifting, locked down into solid plates as Agent V dived avoid another wave of micro-bots. Landing on his feet, he launched himself forward with a kick at the man in the mask but was knocked away by another wave. Other attempts resulted the same.

“Okay.” Agent V muttered to himself as he flipped up onto a container to avoid another attack, “Let’s try this then.”

The sound of groaning metal filled the air as V’s fingers dug into the container. With a grunt of effort, he flipped himself forward and tossed the container right at the masked man.

“You have got to be kidding me.”

The container was knocked aside with relative ease, leaving him open to a counter attack that slammed him into another container. Agent V leapt clear before the next wave slammed into where he had just been.

“A different approach then. Speed.”

With a flick of his wrists two prongs ejected out of each of his gauntlets, crackling with electricity, as his armor clamped down a little tighter. With a light whirring sound, he took off fast enough to kick up dust and a light zapping noise could be heard. With each zap, handfuls of micro-bots dropped to the ground and the man in the mask found himself being pressed back towards the water.

 

As they got further away Hiro poked his head further and further out from behind the container to watch the fight.

“Whoa. Tadashi, you have to watch this. I wonder how he moves so fast…”

Tadashi tugged him back a bit, “Hiro, it’s not safe. If you’re seen….”

“He’s getting his butt kicked, he’s not going to see me.” Hiro brushed Tadashi aside.

“He can still see you.”

“No, he can’t.” Hiro stepped out from their hiding spot, “See?”

Tadashi tackled him out the way as a wave of micro-bots crashed down near them. They looked in horror as it redirected to strike at them again.

ZZT-ZZT-ZZT

Tadashi looked up from where he had curled around Hiro to protect him to see Agent V standing in front of them. His armor was smoking just a bit and scratched up in a few places.

“I told you two to stay hidden.” The hollow mechanical tone still managed to sound disapproving.

“S-sorry.” Tadashi stuttered, still wrapped around Hiro.

Hiro just whimpered from his place under Tadashi, his eyes firmly shut.

“Just stay together and stay close.”

With another whirring noise he was a blur, the crackling noise filling the air as he zoomed around and knocking the waves away. Tadashi wasn’t an expert in combat, he had only done a couple of years of martial arts with Hiro, but even he could tell that the battle was deadlocked. Agent V was stuck defending them and couldn’t press any advantage he could get while the masked man had an endless swarm of micro-bots. Agent V could shut them down, but they would reboot in a few minutes.

Tadashi was forced to roll as Agent V pushed them out of the way of another attack. It happened a few more times before the realization of what was happening sunk in.

“We’re being herded.” He whispered in horror.

He was right, they were now mere feet away from the water and slowly getting closer with each passing minute. Agent V knew it as well, his armor was producing even more smoke as he moved faster and faster trying to keep the boys safe.

It was all for naught as one final wave blasted them into the water. Tadashi braced for impact, holding Hiro close and turning so the smaller brother wouldn’t feel as much of it. Right before he hit the water he felt something attach and crawl across his face.

 

* * *

 

“Hey, wake up.”

Tadashi blinked as he came to, eyes focusing on a very familiar sight of green hair.

“W-where…” Tadashi groaned as he sat up.

“We’re on the beach a mile or so away from the shipping yard. Close enough to walk you two home, but far enough that the masked fool can’t chase you two down.”

Tadashi’s breath seized as he thought about the man in the mask and waves of black, but he still managed to squeak out a “Hiro?”

“Your brother is right there.” Tadashi looked to see Hiro seated in the fetal position, “I had to make sure you were going to wake up first.

Tadashi scrambled over to his brother and wrapped him up in a hug, holding onto him tight.

“He tried to kill us.”

Agent V approached slowly, his hands were empty and fully visible, “Yes, he did. But you two are completely safe now.”

“Tried to kill us.” Tadashi whispered, rocking slightly, “Tried to kill Hiro.”

“He’s gone and you’re safe.” His voice was low and soothing, “Anything else I can handle. You are safe.”

When he was close enough, Agent V crouched down and placed hands on their shoulders. The gauntlets lightly generated some heat, just enough to replicate a warm human touch. Both boys leaned into the touch until they were being hugged. Keeping his voice low, he continued to reassure the two boys that they were safe and okay and had nothing to worry about right now.

“Okay, I need to get you two home.” Agent V said, gently guiding them to their feet.

Tadashi nodded as Hiro grabbed the man’s hand tightly, his other hand planted in his mouth. Tadashi noted the fingers because he hadn’t seen Hiro do that in a very long time. The odd trio, because what else would you call a man in high-tech armor holding hands with a small teenager while another older teen pressed himself close, made their way through the mostly empty streets. It was a long walk, with Hiro dragging his feet and whining and Tadashi pouting and picking at his wet clothes. They were just distracted enough that they didn’t notice V’s upper armor breaking down to reveal the black bodysuit underneath.

Both boys winced when they saw the lights on in their house, pressing closer to their perceived guardian.

“Aunt Cass is gonna be mad.” Tadashi mumbled, Hiro nodding in agreement.

“More worried than mad, I’m sure.” V assured them, leading them into the unlocked shop.

“Where have you two been!” the greeting was immediate as she wiped the crumbs off her face, “I’ve been worried sick! I was this close to calling the police and do you have any idea the number of doughnuts I’ve eaten! Oh…who are you?”

“Hi miss Hamada.” V smiled as he pushed the two boys forward, “I’m Virginia Knight. Pleasure to meet you.”

“It’s nice to meet you too.” She blinked, “What are you doing with my boys? Are they in trouble? Are you with the Police? Did they get arrested again?”

“No, they haven’t been arrested. But it is an interesting story you might want to sit down for. Though I think they need some dry clothes, there was some unintended swimming involved.”

“Oh boy, it couldn’t just be another bot fight could it.” Cass sighed as she pushed the boys up towards the stairs, pulling Hiro’s fingers out his mouth as an afterthought, “Go put some dry clothes on while I talk with Mr. Knight here.”

“Please, call me Virginia.”

She crossed her arms and leaned against the counter, “Well then, Virginia, what happened to them?”

“Well, it all started when I pulled Tadashi out of the building all those weeks ago…..”


	2. Reaction

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When things finally sink in, how do the boys handle it?

It had been a few days since the whole incident with Agent V and the shipping yard and Tadashi didn’t want to think to himself how little he had actually slept. Not sleeping was a terrible habit, one he and Hiro shared, but it was a better idea than nightmares when he fell asleep.

“Ow!” Tadashi spat out a swear as he stuck the offended digit in his mouth.

“Scanning now.”

Tadashi jumped, how had he missed the tell-tale sound of Baymax activating?

“Results: laceration on finger, shakiness, jumpiness, apparent inability to focus. Diagnosis is sleep deprivation. Have you been sleeping Tadashi?”

Tadashi spun around in his chair, running his hand across his face, “No, Baymax. I haven’t.”

“Why? Not sleeping leads to things such as short term memory loss, temporary loss of fine motor control, diminished cognitive functions—”

“I know.” Tadashi cut him off, “It’s just…been hard to do lately.”

“Why?”

Tadashi rolled his eyes, he had to teach Baymax how to ask why didn’t he?

“Nightmares, Baymax. They tend to put a damper on sleeping.” Tadashi blinked some blurriness out of his eyes.

“Nightmares are a symptom of emotional distress. I am not equipped to handle emotional distress.”

“Not yet buddy, not yet.” Tadashi spun back around in his chair, “I’ll get there soon.”

Tadashi attempted to work, he really did, but nothing seemed to fit together the way he wanted it to. With a groan he slammed his tools down and shoved himself away from his desk, crossing his arms as he stared out the window.

“Download complete.” Baymax chirped, “Recommendation for emotional distress is to speak with loved ones. Contacting loved ones now.”

“What?! No!” Tadashi whipped around, scanning Baymax’s screen to see who he had called, “Baymax, stop!”

Baymax had only put in a call to Aunt Cass and Hiro, and there was no way Hiro was going to answer his phone, but Aunt Cass would kill him if she found out he wasn’t sleeping. Of all the bad habits the brother’s had, not sleeping was the one Aunt Cass hated the most.

“Calls completed. Hiro did not answer. Is he feeling well?”

“He should be fine.” Tadashi muttered, “He better be fine.”

Hiro probably had stopped sleeping as well, probably forgot about showering or changing clothes too. The little monster forgot about a lot of things when Tadashi wasn’t there to remind him. Maybe he should make something to follow Hiro around and remind him about doing all the things he would forget to do.

“No,” he muttered to himself, “the little monster would just reprogram it.”

Tadashi blinked as he felt Baymax’s arms wrap his arms around him.

“Another treatment is physical contact.” Baymax patted him on the head, “There, there. It is okay.”

Tadashi sighed, and totally didn’t sag into the hug, while rubbing his eyes.

“Baymax, I am sat—”

“The fluffy marshmallow does have a point Tadashi.” A familiar voice cut in, making Tadashi jump out of his chair.

He tried not to turn red as Baymax caught him.

Virginia stood leaning in the doorway with his arms crossed. He was wearing boots, jeans and a sweatshirt, though Tadashi could spot the armored bodysuit the man wore under all his clothes. The shock of green hair was somewhat reassuring to see.

“Please be careful Tadashi. You almost caused yourself physical harm.” Baymax cautioned as he set Tadashi on his feet.

“You scared me.” Tadashi glared at Virginia.

Virginia shrugged, “I knocked. Twice.”

“He did. I was about to inform you.” Baymax stated as Tadashi shot him a withering look.

“What are you doing here?” Tadashi finally asked, resisting the urge to yawn.

“Your aunt called me. She said she got a call from the marshmallow of yours talking about emotional distress. She figured I had the experience to help you considering the whole superhero thing.”

“I’m fine.” Tadashi muttered.

“Don’t lie.” Virginia rolled his eyes as he closed the door.

“My scans say otherwise Tadashi.” Baymax said at the same time.

“So what is the marshmallow anyway? I mean, he’s a robot. But what kind?” Virginia carefully leaned himself against Tadashi’s desk.

“Healthcare.” Tadashi mumbled as he planted himself back in his chair, folding his arms.

“Interesting. Most of the robots I’ve met were…..well, not so nice.”

“I was designed to appear as non-threatening as possible.”

“I’d say you were pretty successful on that part Tadashi.”

“Thanks.”

Virginia frowned and stepped forward, “Tadashi, trust me. You need to talk about these things or it’s going to get worse. You’ve been having nightmares haven’t you?”

Tadashi nodded, “Every time I try to sleep.”

Virginia hauled him to his feet, carefully, “Then let’s talk about them. Come sit with me.”

Tadashi tried to resist, but the other man was strong enough that he just continued to drag Tadashi to the other side of the lab and onto the ground. Tadashi scooted away a few inches, eying Virginia warily.

“Tell me about the nightmares.” Virginia’s voice was soft, encouraging.

Tadashi just shook his head, pulling his knees to his chest.

“Tell you what, I’ll tell you something about me if you tell me about your nightmares.”

That caught Tadashi’s attention, “Like what?”

Virginia shrugged, “Depends on what you tell me.”

It was quiet for a few minutes as Tadashi contemplated what to share with Virginia. There was the part of him that wanted to tell the man to leave him alone, he could handle this alone and be fine. The other part, one he was never aware was there, wanted to curl up next to the man who had saved his life twice and tell him everything that was wrong so he could make it better.

It wasn’t hard to figure out which side won out.

“Fire.” Tadashi said quietly, his face half buried in his knees, “It’s everywhere and it’s hot and I can’t get out. I’m being burned and can’t breathe. I can hear Hiro shouting and crying and I can’t get out. And right as I wake up a beam is falling towards me and I….I…”

Tadashi started shaking, his breath hitching before he could finish sharing. Virginia tugged him closer, motioning for Baymax to remain silent, and wrapped an arm around his shoulder.

“A fire huh? My turn then. It was my second night in town and I picked up police chatter about this massive fire in one of the buildings at this big local college. So I suited up and ran over to help, only to be stop this kid from running into the building. He begged me to help his brother, who had just done the exact thing I stopped him from doing.”

Tadashi sniffed a bit, he hadn’t heard this part of the story from anyone.

“So after making sure he wasn’t going to dash in, I ran in the building. Luckily the boy hadn’t gotten too far in and I found him just in time to smash a beam that was about to fall. He was safe, though he did fall and hit his head. I was about to carry him out when the building exploded. Lucky for him I threw some of my armor onto him and let my suit take most of the force. After that, I carried him out and left him with his brother and the EMTs.”

Tadashi was stunned, he never learned about being in the building as it exploded, so Virginia pressed the issue.

“So remember Tadashi, you lived. Your survived the fire and the explosion. It was terrifying, I still remember diving into my first burning building, but all you need to do is picture your knight in green armor pulling you out. You’re safe from the fire.”

Tadashi was amazed by the feather light touches he felt from the man he had seen throw shipping containers like they were nothing. Then he whimpered as the memory of black waves and water flooded his mind, and he pressed closer into the other man.

“Hey, hey. You’re safe. Trust me, nobody is going to get you in your lab. There’s nobody else in the building right now.” Virginia soothed, rubbing circles on his back.

“Tried to kill us.” Tadashi finally gave in and buried his face in the other man’s sweatshirt, not caring that he had climbed all over him.

“Yeah, I know he did. I really wish you two hadn’t followed me there that night.”

“Hiro was gonna go alone.” Tadashi’s voice was muffled by the jacket.

“And you did the right thing going with him, especially if you couldn’t stop him.” Virginia reassured him, “And I kept you safe from that man didn’t I?”

Tadashi nodded.

“And I’ll stop any other attempts he makes.” Virginia continued rubbing circles on his back, “I’m ready for him this time. Maybe I’ll try throwing a bus at him this time.”

They sat there for a while in silence, Virginia continuing to rub Tadashi’s back.

“Tadashi has fallen asleep.” Baymax chimed in, “My scans indicate that he is experiencing a pleasant dream.”

“Good.” Virginia shifted Tadashi around, noting he was chewing on the collar of his shirt.

It took a bit of delicate work, though anything not involving throwing heavy objects was delicate work for Virginia, but he managed to get Tadashi into a more comfortable sleeping position. He had gone from being half curled up on Virginia’s lap to being curled up on the floor with his head resting on Virginia’s folded up sweatshirt.

“I have noted several physical abnormalities in my scans of you Virginia, may I perform some in depth scans as to appropriately update my files?”

Virginia glanced at the soundly sleeping Tadashi before shrugging, the black bodysuit moving seamlessly with him, “Why not? Fire away fluffy marshmallow.”

“I am not a fluffy marshmallow. I am Baymax.”

“It’s a nickname. Let’s get this testing started then.”

 

* * *

 

“671…672….673…674…”

Tadashi ran his hand over his face as he sat up, that was the best sleep he had gotten in weeks. But why was Baymax counting? His eyes, still with a post-sleep haze, focused on where Baymax was standing across from Virginia, who was doing one-handed handstand push-ups. He rose to his feet, his back cracking as he stretched.

“680….Tadashi is awake…682…683…” Baymax continued, not missing a beat as Tadashi padded his way over.

“Alright, let’s call it quits marshmallow. We’ll continue testing some other time.” Virginia stated as he slowly came out of the handstand to his feet, “How’d you sleep?”

“Good.” Tadashi attempted to say, but his words were muffled by the shirt in his mouth.

“Might want to take your shirt out if you’re going to talk Tadashi.”

“It is also highly unsanitary.” Baymax.

“That too. Thank you Marshmallow.”

“You are welcome.”

Tadashi’s face was red as he pulled his shirt out his mouth, he hadn’t done that since he was really little.

“Marshmallow?” He finally managed to get out of all the questions he had.

“It is a nickname.” Baymax chimed in.

“I see….” Great, his most heavily weighed project was answering to being called marshmallow.

“You have class.” Virginia placed a hand on his shoulder, “You should go get ready.”

“My scans indicate that your bladder is full Tadashi.” Baymax added, “I recommend using the restroom.”

Once Baymax finished speaking, Tadashi was suddenly aware of how full his bladder was. His hands flew to his crotch as he rushed off towards the bathroom. It had been a close call, and he admonished himself for not noticing. He hadn’t had a close call like that in years, not that much trouble with his button in longer.

With that in mind, Tadashi washed his hand and left the bathroom.

“Good job.”

Tadashi jumped back, his hands coming up to defend himself, as Virginia spoke up from beside the door.

“Good job for what?” Tadashi questioned.

“You have class. Here.” Virginia handed Tadashi his school bag, completely ignoring Tadashi’s question.

“Right.” He took the bag, nervously glancing between his phone and Virginia, “Class.”

“I’ll walk with you. Might be nice to see this campus in a non-emergency way.”

It didn’t take long to get Tadashi to his class, the boy was worried that he was going to be late despite Virginia telling him he had more than enough time. Before he entered the room, Virginia was sure it was some advanced medical class, Tadashi shot him one last look.

“Thanks again. For last night.” Tadashi mumbled, his hands going to pull his shirt into his mouth.

Virginia pulled his hand away, “You’re welcome. Just be sure to head home tonight, your aunt was worried.”

“Okay.”

When he hesitated a second time, Virginia lightly shoved him through the door. When Tadashi whipped around to express his outrage, Virginia was gone from the hallway. Despite being a little irked, he couldn’t help but smile as he took his seat.

There was something…..amicable about how he disappeared.

 

* * *

 

Virginia slipped back into Tadashi’s lab, absently scooping his sweatshirt off of the floor.

“Hey marshmallow,” Virginia greeted as he zipped his jacket, “I need a favor.”

“How may I be of service?”

“I need you to make a note to add me to the list of contacts for Tadashi, specifically for emotional distress and emergencies.”

“Added. Please understand that I will not be able to hide this from Tadashi.”

“I’m sure he’ll understand.”

“Understood. In order for me to deactivate, you have to be satisfied with your care.”

Virginia smiled, “I am satisfied with my care.”

“Good bye Virginia.”

Virginia shook his head as Baymax deflated back into his storage form, “See you later Marshmallow.”

 

* * *

 

It was night when Tadashi made his way home. His day had been long, he had a bit of a hard time focusing in class, and he was relieved when he smelled Aunt Cass’ cooking. It was exactly what he needed tonight.

“Tadashi!” She smiled and hugged him when he reached the top of the stairs, “How are you? I was worried when I got a call from your robot. Did Virginia make it? Were you chewing on your shirt?”

“I’m fine, Virginia helped a lot. And I think I was, but I’m not really sure. I might have been sleeping.” He responded flawlessly, “What’s cooking?”

“Chicken wing pizza.” A grin snaked its way across her face as she pulled away, “I was hoping to lure both you boys back to the house with my amazing culinary skills.”

“Well, it worked for me.”

“One out of two isn’t that bad.”

Tadashi frowned, “Where is Hiro?”

Aunt Cass frowned, “He’s been in his workshop all day. I was just about to go check on him.”

Tadashi hugged her a second time, relishing in the contact, “I’ll go and drag him out. You stay here, you worked all day.”

She patted his arm, “If you insist. Maybe we’ll watch a movie tonight, there are some good ones on tonight.”

“Sounds like a plan. Let me go and see if I can drag him out.” Tadashi let go of his Aunt and made his way down the stairs.

If Hiro ran off to another bot fight, Tadashi would call in Virginia to drag the boy home with him.

 

* * *

 

Lucky for Hiro, and the underground bot fighting community that allowed a minor to participate, Tadashi found his little brother hunched over his workbench.

“Hiro, what’re you working on?”

Hiro stayed silent, studiously working on his project. Taking it as a hint, Tadashi stepped closer and looked over his shoulder. The project was green, Tadashi noticed first, and vaguely human shaped. The armor Hiro was studiously welding to the base frame looked oddly familiar.

“Hiro…is that Virginia?”

Hiro grunted, which he took as a yes.

“Why are you making a Virginia bot?”

Hiro didn’t answer, making Tadashi frown.

“Come on Hiro, Aunt Cass is making pizza.”

Hiro shook his head as he set one tool down and grabbed another while simultaneously making a new 3D model for another piece of armor.

“Hiro, you need to eat. Come on.”

Hiro continued to ignore him, making Tadashi’s frown deepen. Hiro was notorious for getting involved in his work, he had a bad habit of hyper focusing on a task, but Tadashi couldn’t remember a time when it actually got this bad.

Part of him wished he had brought Baymax home with him, just so he could scan Hiro. And maybe Hiro would giggle with him when Baymax answered to marshmallow.

“Alright, let’s do it this way then.”

Tadashi scooped Hiro up by the armpits, Hiro was as light as he looked and Tadashi was deceptively strong, and started towards the door. It took a second to process, then it was like a switch had flipped in Hiro.

“PUT ME DOWN! PUT ME DOWN!” Hiro shrieked, squirming and flailing in Tadashi’s arms, “LET GO! PUTMEDOWN! PUTMEDOWN!”

With all Hiro’s flailing Tadashi caught a headbutt to the nose, an elbow to the jaw, and a kick to the stomach. With the last hit knocking the wind out of him, Tadashi was forced to drop Hiro and watched as the boy scrambled back into his chair and went back to work like nothing happened.

“What is the matter with you?” Tadashi gasped, catching his breath.

The tears, he reassured himself, were coming from the hit to his nose and not because Hiro had hit and screamed at him.

Being determined, Tadashi sat and tried for the next hour to get Hiro to respond. At worst he got an angry glare that made something in his chest twinge painfully, and a noncommittal noise at best. Even aunt Cass, who stopped down to see what was taking so long, got nothing out of him.

“Maybe,” Tadashi stared, “Virginia could help?”

Aunt Cass sighed, taking a bite out of the piece of pizza she attempted to bribe Hiro with.

“It couldn’t hurt. He helped you earlier right?”

“Yeah.” Tadashi fought the urge to chew on his collar, “I’ll call him then.”

The phone picked up on the second ring, Tadashi was certain the phone was in the man’s helmet, and Virginia agreed to come over just as soon as Tadashi explained what was going on. He then asked to talk to Aunt Cass, and when she hung up she dragged Tadashi back upstairs and forced him to eat.

“So,” both the older Hamada’s jumped as the voice spoke out from the window, “he’s in your workshop. Can you show me?”

“Sure.” enough of Tadashi was excited that he hugged the man tightly before he led him down to the workshop.

Virginia paused just outside the door, stopping Tadashi and inspecting where he got hit.

“He got you good huh.” Virginia said as Tadashi lowered his shirt, “Head back and put some ice on those. Just save your brother some food okay?”

Tadashi hesitated, “He’s gonna be okay right?”

“Yes, just let me talk to him alone for a bit.” Virginia shoved him nicely towards the house, “Now go.”

 

Virginia winced as he entered the workshop, the air smelled strongly of sweat and urine. How had nobody noticed that?

Shaking his head, and avoiding activating his mask to protect his sensitive nose, Virginia made his way over to Hiro.

“You want to do this the easy way or the hard way kid?”

Hiro turned to look at him, shock flashing across his face for a moment before he shook his head. In that instant, Virginia spotted all the same issues he saw with Tadashi earlier: bags and dark circles under his eyes, shaking hands, an unfocused look in the eyes, and the smells he had noticed when he entered.

Making his decision, Virginia lifted Hiro into his arms.

“PUTMEDOWN! PUTMEDOWNPUTMEDOWN! LET ME GO! LETMEGO!” Hiro screamed, kicking and flailing all the while.

Virginia felt sorry for Hiro whenever the boy made a solid hit, he had been told multiple times hitting a tank was softer than hitting him. He was going to have to be certain that he took painkillers or something later.

He also felt bad when he had to sit on the old couch, it groaned under his weight.

“Enough Hiro, you’re safe. You’re okay.” Virginia kept his voice soothing as he rocked the flailing teenager, “Tadashi is safe. Nobody is hurt, nobody is coming to get you.”

Virginia pressed on, the boy’s hits felt like someone brushing up against his suit, rocking and consoling the boy. As time ticked past, Hiro stopped struggling and started crying into the bigger man’s sweatshirt.

“I promise you Hiro, you’re safe. I’m here, Tadashi is here, and your aunt is here. Nobody is going to come after you, nobody is going to hurt you.”

It wasn’t hard to figure out that Hiro was upset about what had happened at the shipping yard. That was why Virginia suspected Hiro was replicating him in robot form, to protect people.

Eventually Hiro’s crying petered out and one of his hands disappeared into his mouth, and Virginia chanced standing up. Once he was certain that Hiro wasn’t going to break into a screaming fit again, he left the workshop and head back towards the Hamada household after flicking the power to the workshop off.

 

* * *

 

“Hiro!” Tadashi, dressed in sleep pants, a t-shirt, and reading glasses, leapt to his feet as Virginia cleared the landing.

“Shh.” Virginia held a free hand to his lips, “He’s half asleep and likely to scream if you wake him up.”

“Is he okay?” Aunt Cass was next to Tadashi, a reassuring hand on his shoulder.

“Recent events finally caught up with him. He should be okay in the morning.” He shifted Hiro to look him over, “He’ll have a few bruises, and probably a headache, but he’s okay.”

Aunt Cass frowned, “You hit him?”

“Never. He hit me. I’m pretty sturdy.” Virginia looked around, “Where do you want me to set him?”

Aunt Cass pointed to the empty spot on the couch, “There will be good.”

“You’re going to need a towel.”

Aunt Cass frowned, “Why?”

“His pants are wet. Urine I believe.”

“Tadashi, go get him some clean clothes please.”

Once Tadashi was gone and Hiro set down on a thick blanket, Aunt Cass sagged. Virginia shot her a sympathetic look from his spot by the window.

“I’m sorry.” He finally spoke up, “If they hadn’t followed me to the shipping yard, this wouldn’t have happened. Never get innocents involved.”

Aunt Cass frowned, the superhero looked far older than he had the other day. She never thought she would see someone so young look so old.

“It’s not your fault. They do get into everything.”

He snorted, a disbelieving look etched across his face.

“Aunt Cass, I’ve got….he disappeared again didn’t he?”

Aunt Cass, who had turned her back for a moment when Tadashi came down the stairs, sighed heavily as she turned around to see the window open and the curtains blowing in the faint wind from outside.

“Yea, but I’m sure he’ll be back. Let’s take care of Hiro for now.”

Tadashi nodded, his concern for Hiro taking precedence over the slight aching that came from the older man disappearing without a word.

Did he not like them?


	3. Changes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things are going to change for everyone. Oddly enough, it's the hero who is the most uncomfortable.

Virginia smirked as Cass realized it was him who had placed the absurdly large order for breakfast pastries. He would have to remember not to order so many next time, she had only been open for an hour or two and he had taken most of her pastries.

“Virginia!” Cass exclaimed, nearly dropping the tray, “I wasn’t expecting you. Are you eating all of these alone?”

“Probably.” he shrugged, “I eat a lot. But if you have the time, please feel free to join me for a big.”

Cass bit her lip, glancing around the shop. It was still too early for the usual morning rush, so she was certain she could spare a few minutes to sit and talk. That didn’t stop her from looking astounded as Virginia devouring several of the pastries.

“Sorry. Not used to eating with people.” Virginia wiped his mouth with a napkin, “So how are you doing?”

“Huh?” Cass blinked, she wasn’t used to being asked that.

“Figured I should ask, all things considered.” Virginia took another bite, “All the stuff with your boys lately. I doubt anyone has asked.”

“I’m…hanging in there.” she finally sighed, sagging in the seat, “I mean, I raised them so I know how to handle this. But it’s weird with them being bigger. I mean, Hiro had two accidents last night. Two! He didn’t even have any when he was three.”

Virginia said nothing as she swiped one of the pastries and took a bite out of it.

“And Tadashi! I love affection, ya know, but he was so cuddly last night. It made me feel terrible every time I had to get up, he’d shoot me this look like I had done the worst thing in the world. The other strange part was he was doing the potty dance all night. I swear he almost had as many accidents as Hiro did have!”

“Regressive behavior.” Virginia commented as he ate the last of the pastries, “At least that’s what it sounds like.”

“Regressive….what?” Cass’ eyebrows furrowed together, “What is that?”

“Couldn’t explain it. I’m not a psychologist.” Virginia shrugged.

“Then why would you…”

“Aunt Cass?”

Both adults snapped their attention towards the curtain that divided the restaurant from the apartment. Tadashi stood there rubbing his eyes, the collar of his shirt darkened from where he had been chewing on it and his hair sticking up in every direction.

“What’s the matter Tadashi?” Cass was on her feet and over there in an instant.

“Hiro had another accident.” Tadashi mumbled, glancing around Cass, “Was Virginia here?”

“He was…” Cass turned to look, sighing when she spotted the empty table and the stack of bills.

“Oh.” Tadashi looked down at his feet.

“Come on Tadashi, let’s go get Hiro cleaned up.” Placing a hand on her nephew’s shoulder and guided him back up the stairs.

On their way up, Tadashi paused at the window and watched as the police whipped by with their sirens on. He swore that, for a split second, he saw a blur of green racing down the street with them.

 

* * *

 

Virginia swore softly to himself as he flopped down on the bed in his safe house. Never had a ratty old couch felt so good. This was supposed to be a vacation, but he was just as busy as always.

“What is with this city and robots?” he grumbled as he threw a tennis ball at the wall, catching it as it came rocketing back to him.

He had made some progress on the masked man case. He wasn’t as active as a normal super villain, no high profile robberies or threats yet, but he did manage to track down the source of that red bird symbol: Alistair Krei. He had plans to stop over there as Agent V tomorrow and question the man in hopes of getting something useful out of the businessman.

Hopefully it would go well and he wouldn’t have to dangle the man out of a window.

He nearly popped the ball when his phone went off. The only people who had his phone number were the Hamadas and the Marshmallow, so he barely hesitated to pick up the phone.

“Hello?”

“Are you free tonight?” Cass’ voice surprised him for a moment.

“I…should be? Barring some emergency. Why?”

“You’re coming to dinner.” Cass stated, “The boys suggested it and I figured it was a good idea. It’s the least I can do.”

“I don’t have a choice in this do I?” Virginia sighed, running his fingers through his hair.

“Not at all. Can you be here by 6:30?”

“Sure.”

“Perfect. I’ll see you then.” Her voice was still chipper as she hung up.

Virginia shook his head as he set his phone down, throwing the tennis ball one last time. Dinner, with normal people.

How in the hell was he supposed to do this?

 

* * *

 

“Am I…early?”

Virginia felt uncomfortable, tugging at the collar of his t-shirt. He had left both his armor and under-suit back at the hideout and managed to fish out a passable outfit with a green shirt and a pair of jeans. He felt naked.

“No, not at all.” Cass smiled to hide the fact that he had surprised her, “I actually wanted to talk to you before we ate anyway.”

“The boys?” Virginia eyes the stairs he knew led up to their room.

“They’re napping or doing homework. Just involved enough that they won’t make their way down until I call them.”

Cass waved him into a seat and sat down across from him after making sure nothing was going to burn.

“How were they today?”

“Like last night.” she sighed, “but all day. I’m amazed I managed to get anything done with them acting like that. I don’t think Hiro even has any underwear left. Not to mention Tadashi had a very near miss, and let me tell you I haven’t seen him that upset in ages.”

Virginia paid only half attention to what she was saying, part of his very, very aware of how much she was moving as she talked. Had she always been like this? He must not have noticed before.

“But anyway. I did some research on what you said this morning, regressive behavior, and I wanted to talk about it. This one website said that…”

Virginia listened as she went on about what she had found. He already knew what it was, but he needed her to know so she could get a grasp on how her boys were acting. He had to admit that she had been thorough, she had even stumbled onto age play and a bunch of other stuff that involved regression. He was impressed.

She also owned a total of thirty knives that he was certain were razor sharp.

“Is it harming them?” he finally cut her off.

“No?”

“Then its how they’re handling it. Hiro has had an attempt on his life and Tadashi has nearly died twice. There are a lot worse ways to cope than regression.”

“Does it make me a bad person for being hesitant about all of this?” Cass asked after a few minutes, “I mean, they’re my boys and I want what’s best for them but this is just….”

“It’d be weird if you didn’t have any hesitations about it.” Virginia shrugged, “But it is better than what they were doing.”

“You’re talking like you’re going to be here to help.” Cass shot him a look, eyeing him.

“They followed me to the docks and got attacked because of it.” Virginia tapped his leg, “It’s kind of my fault.”

Cass frowned but didn’t argue with him. He might not be one of her boys, but she knew that look on his face well enough to know that nothing that she was going to say was going to change his mind about that. So she smiled at him before going back to the stove to finish cooking.

Virginia rose to his feet and politely offered to set the table.

 

* * *

 

“Boys! Come eat!”

Virginia mentally prepared himself in the event that the boys charged, he didn’t want to hurt them on accident just because he was feeling jumpy. He had already shattered one of Cass’ plates.

“Virginia!” Tadashi wrapped him in a hug as soon as he noticed him standing there, “You came!”

“Yeah.” Virginia awkwardly hugged him back, “I had some free time.”

Hiro, who had been trailing behind his brother, blearily hugged the man in-between yawns and mumbled a greeting. Virginia smiled and placed the half asleep boy in a chair.

Tadashi snickered as Hiro perked up at the smell of food, only stopping to insist that Virginia sit next to him.

Dinner itself went off without a hitch. Hiro and Tadashi didn’t make colossal messes out of their food, Virginia scraped through with passable table manners, and Cass was fully delighted that her boys were actually eating a healthy amount of food as opposed to just picking at it.

“That was good Aunt Cass.” Tadashi chimed in as he carried his plate to the sink.

“Thank you. I’m just glad you two actually ate more than just enough to survive.”

“I always eat enough.” Tadashi pouted as Hiro made a disgruntled noise from his spot at the table.

Virginia and Hiro stared each other down, Hiro’s face set into a stubborn pout.

“Hiro, you can eat that. It’s two bites.”

Hiro shook his head, crossing his arms.

Tadashi moved to say something only to be cut off by Cass, who shook her head when he gave her a confused look.

“Alright, I guess I’ll just have to take Tadashi with me on that walk later.” Hiro’s face switched from stubborn to curious, “Yep. I was going to take you with me but if you don’t eat, you won’t have the energy to go.”

Hiro frowned, eyes darting between his plate, Virginia, and outside. With a huff, he picked his fork back up and finished eating.

“Good job.” Virginia ruffled the smaller boy’s hair as his picked the plate up.

“Dessert?” Hiro yawned, his fingers inching towards his mouth.

“Actually, we need to have a talk first. Then dessert.” Cass said as Virginia slid past her towards the sink.

“Are we in trouble?” Tadashi’s eyebrows knitted together as he sat down.

“No, not at all.” Cass kept her smile calm.

Virginia waited a moment by the sink, having rinsed off most of the plates as best he could without breaking them, until he was certain Cass had their full attention. Once he knew she did, nobody was looking and their situational awareness was pretty bad, he reached over and unlatched the window with the intent of slipping out.

“Virginia, don’t go!” Tadashi’s voice cut Cass off at the same time he whipped around to catch the wet napkin aiming towards his head.

Virginia sighed, he couldn’t say no to the faces they were giving him. And he did promise that he would help Cass with them.

So with that in mind, he took his spot back next Tadashi and nodded slightly towards Cass.

“Right. So we all,” she shot a look at a seemingly unrepentant Virginia, “need to talk about how you two have been behaving lately.”

That had an instant reaction from the two. Hiro curled in on himself, drawing his knees to his chest and sticking his fingers in his mouth. Tadashi’s eyes went wide and frantically darted between Cass and Virginia, his fingers toying with the collar of his shirt. Virginia’s hand hesitated towards Tadashi’s shoulder before returning to its place on his lap.

“We are in trouble aren’t we?” Tadashi mumbled, not meeting either adult’s eyes.

“No, you’re not.” Cass reassured, “It’s just something we need to talk about.”

“Hiro.” Virginia cut in, his eyebrow’s furrowed together, “How fast does a driver have to go off of a twenty degree ramp to land fifteen meters away?”

Hiro scrunched his face up in contemplation before mumbling something.

“You have to be louder than that for me to hear you Hiro.” Virginia encouraged, leaning in just a bit.

“Fifteen point one meters per second.” Hiro stated, just loud enough to be heard.

“Good job. Tadashi, what’s the maximum height?” Virginia turned his head, focusing on the younger boy.

Tadashi’s mouth moved and he traced out numbers on the table as he worked on the problem. Hiro sat up just a bit, pulling his legs away from his chest, and Virginia could almost hear the gears turning in his head as he worked out the second part.

“One point three eight meters!” Tadashi’s head snapped up, a smile on his face as he gave the answer.

“Good job.” Virginia hesitantly tapped the boy on the back, smiling.

“What your aunt is saying is that there’s nothing wrong with what you two are doing. You need to understand that off the bat, nothing is wrong. You’re coping with what’s happened, which has been a lot in recent weeks.”

“There’s just going to be some small changes.” Cass continued when Virginia stopped, “Like the accidents and the curling in on yourselves, that’s not good.”

“I don’t mean for it to happen.” Hiro mumbled around his fingers, “I just get doing something and it happens. I don’t notice.”

“You’ve always been that way.” Tadashi rolled his eyes, “I could draw on your face when you’re working on a project and you wouldn’t even notice.”

“Could not!” Hiro protested.

“Could too!” Tadashi shot back.

Virginia stared as the two boys argued back and forth, a strange look settling across his face.

“If he’s having accidents and not noticing,” Virginia spoke up over the boys, directing his gaze towards Cass, “why not just use something like pull-ups, or diapers?”

All noise stopped as the Hamadas stared at the green haired man, who only blinked in response. Then Cass turned towards Hiro while Tadashi’s face went pensive.

“Hiro,” Cass’ voice was calm, “what do you think?”

Hiro’s fingers stuck themselves firmly in his mouth as he refused to meet anyone’s eyes. Tadashi bit his lip, looking worriedly between his brother and the adults in the room. Virginia placed an arm around him, doing his best not to stiffen as Tadashi pressed himself closer.

“Hiro?” Cass pressed, but Hiro merely shrugged.

“Alright then.” Virginia rose to his feet, detangling himself from Tadashi, “Hiro, let’s take that walk we talked about earlier huh? Then when we get back Tadashi and your aunt will have desert ready.”

Tadashi frowned as Hiro scrambled out of the chair and grabbed Virginia’s hand. The only thing that stopped him from curling up into a ball was Cass putting a hand on his shoulder and asking him what he wanted for dessert.

 

* * *

 

Virginia bit back a swear as he eyed the night crowd, there weren’t supposed to be this many people out this time of night. Why did he have to pick tonight to try and act like a civilian? Even his glasses would have been enough.

Hiro’s grip tightened on his hand, snapping him back to the present. Protect the ward, accomplish the mission. With that in mind, Virginia swept Hiro off the ground and placed him on his shoulders.

“No accidents up there. This is my only shirt.” Virginia commented as he started down the sidewalk, making sure Hiro’s head wouldn’t hit on any signs.

Never one to lie to himself, Virginia wanted to get Hiro talking about what had been going on. Not his behavior, that had been handled already, but the fire and the shipping yard. But it was also very difficult to get someone who goes non-verbal to talk.

The only noises he got out of Hiro were huffs or giggles as they made their way down the street. There was one whine when Virginia spun around an ice cream vendor before Hiro could signal the man for ice cream.

“None of that. We’ll have dessert when we get back.” Hiro whined, “Really, we will. With your aunt and Tadashi.”

Hiro snorted at his brother’s name.

“Oh? Are you mad at him?” Hiro made an affirmative noise, “Is it because of the fire?”

Hiro tensed at the mention of the incident, but made another affirmative noise.

“Yeah. You do know he won’t do something like that again right?” Virginia stated as he turned another corner.

“Stupid.” Hiro finally mumbled, laying his head against Virginia’s.

“Yes, it was a very stupid decision and he’s paying for it now. Just like you are from following me to the shipping yard.”

Hiro whined.

“I know.” Virginia patted him on the leg, “But you can’t be too mad at Tadashi when you did the same thing.”

“Fine.” Hiro grumbled.

Virginia checked that talk off his mental checklist as he ducked his way into the store. He felt Hiro squirmed as the clerks greeted them, and a few people cooed at him, but Virginia took it all in stride and waved them off.

Hiro groaned as his ride turned down the aisle full baby stuff, kicking his legs. Virginia responded by pulling him down and pulling out the back of his waistband, reading the tags.

“Stay still. I would have just scanned you but I don’t have my glasses tonight.” He explained, “So this is the only option.”

Hiro grumbled and roamed further down the aisle once he was let go, leaving Virginia inspecting the variety of packages in front of him. He did the calculations, factoring Hiro’s size in with the notes on the packaging, and snagged two of them off the shelves.

“Come on Hiro.” Virginia waved the boy back to him, “We have dessert to get back to.”

Hiro didn’t return empty handed, having come back with a giant box of crayons, two coloring books about robots, a package of pacifiers, and odd bear/blanket combination.

“What’s yours?”

Hiro held out one of the coloring books and the pacifiers.

“And the others are for Tadashi?”

Hiro nodded, miming putting the blanket part of the bear in his mouth.

“Ah. Well, let’s go pay for it then.”

Hiro blinked in surprise, having expected to be told no to something, before grinning and following him.

“No Hiro, put the gummy bears back.”

Hiro pouted the rest of the way to the counter, even as the woman working tried to coax him into saying something while telling Virginia that his son was adorable.

“He’s my cousin.” Virginia corrected as he handed over the correct amount of cash, “But thank you. Where is your restroom?”

He smiled and thanked her again after she pointed it out before he grabbed Hiro’s hand and walked him to the bathroom. Hiro bit his lip, finding something unnerving about the toilets.

“I’m not expecting you to use one.” Virginia stated, “Just go put one of these on.”

Hiro looked at his options, one was an actual diaper while the other was a pull-up, and weighed them carefully. Virginia leaned against the door, barring anyone else from entering, and watched as Hiro made his decision with the pull-up.

“Are you going to need help?” he asked as the small boy started to strip.

Once Hiro shook his head, Virginia politely averted his eyes enough that it didn’t look like he was staring as Hiro changed his clothes. He only snapped back to attention when Hiro was struggling with the button on his shorts, which he kneeled down and did for him.

“Alright, let’s get back then.” Virginia scooped up the bags and Hiro in one swoop and headed out the door.

 

* * *

 

Virginia sat on the Hamada’s couch in the dark, slowly listening for the rest of the household to fall asleep. Once they did, he planned to slip out the window and make his way back to his safe house. He had spent enough time out of armor and imposing on the Hamadas.

With that in mind, he silently slid a window open.

“Don’t go.” A voice mumbled, “Don’t like it when you go. Supposed to say good bye.”

Virginia turned, hand reaching for a knife that wasn’t there, and faced the half-asleep Tadashi. He doubted the boy would remember the conversation, he was rubbing both his eyes and his new bear was dangling from his hand.

“Go back to sleep Tadashi.” His voice was barely a whisper, “I’m not going anywhere.”

“Goin’ potty.”

With that, the boy stumbled off to the bathroom and Virginia sat back down on the couch, waiting until Tadashi stumbled his way safely back up to his bed before getting comfortable.

He really needed to learn how to say no to that boy.

 

“You’re still here!”

Virginia did flinch slightly this time as Tadashi charged and wrapped his arms around him. He didn’t exactly sleep last night and it was setting him just a bit on edge.

“Yes, I told you I wasn’t leaving last night. Can’t go without saying good-bye.”

Well, he hoped that was the social norm anyway.

 


	4. Decisions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Something happens with Virginia and the boys make a decision. Its the consequences that are hard to live with.

Virginia ignored the messages from his armor with a practiced ease as he raced down the busy road, leaping over cars. All he had intended to do was have a nice, polite conversation with Alistair Krei about the masked man and a few other things that had happened in his companies past that mas have set a super villain after him. He hadn’t expected the masked man, referring to himself as Yokai, to attack Krei’s office in broad daylight.

Krei hadn’t been happy when Virginia grabbed him and tossed him out a window just ahead of a wave of spikes meant to impale. Virginia was, in turn, impressed with how quickly Krei’s security team responded and had their boss secured in an armored car and set out.

That was the cause of the high speed chase he currently was on. Virginia really, really, hated high speed chases.

His shock gauntlets crackled to life as he kicked up and spun, disabling the wave of micro-bots that threatened to crash down on him. He was trapped in the same situation that he had been in at the shipping yard, he couldn’t stop Yokai without lethal countermeasures while protecting Krei’s vehicle. His security team was good, but not super villain good.

Apparently good help was hard to find.

Making a snap decision, Virginia kicked his speed mod on, outpacing the attacking wave, and leapt onto Krei’s car. As the speed mod shut down, Virginia’s mag-boots turned on, locking him in place.

“Stop firing, it’s Agent V.” Virginia kept his eyes locked on Yokai as the car swerved through traffic, “You’re going to turn right at the next light, then make another right into the nearest alley you can drive down. Minimize civilian involvement.”

“How did you get this channel?” Krei demanded.

“I scanned for it.” Virginia’s voice was deadpan.

Right before the light, Yokai launched two new larger bots armed with lasers and resistant to his shock gauntlets. They weren’t, however, sturdy enough to survive one of his punches and he threw one back at Yokai while tossing the other into the car, warning Krei to leave it alone.

He was going to have to study this new element.

Once they were in the alley, and Yokai closing in on them, Virginia activated one of his older armor procedures. Two long rails extended from his forearms and up past his fists and rapidly began crackling with electricity. As the charge began to build, Virginia pulled one of the bullets Krei’s men shot into his armor and tossed it up between the rails. The bullet shard snapped into place as the magnetic field took hold, holding it between the two rails. Virginia’s HUD filled with calculations as the targeting system took over and the charge popped up in the upper right corner.

He hadn’t wanted to do this, but he needed to end this chase on his terms. The charge made it to non-lethal levels, responding to the built in limiters, and Virginia fired.

The micro-bots flared in all directions before retreating around Yokai and carrying him off rapidly. Virginia disengaged his boots as the car slowed to a stop, pulling the new bot from the shattered back window.

“Was that a railgun?” Krei, ever the businessman, as he climbed out of the car.

Virginia activated his scanner, recording as much information about the new robot as he could. He would destroy it later.

“Mr. Krei, now would be a good time to tell me everything.” Virginia’s voice was cold and hollow as he rounded on the businessman.

 

He knew it was coming, even as he finished setting the self-repair protocols on his armor dock for both his armor and suit. He ignored the first few calls, he was busy applying the Paste and wrapping his arms, ribs, and legs. Then cleaning up a nosebleed took him from the next one, and he actually felt bad missing that one.

“You need to answer your phone!”

Virginia blinked, tapping his glasses to activate his comm, “Hiro?”

“Yes! Why aren’t you answering your phone!?”

“You hacked my private channel. Why?”

“That’s not important!” Hiro’s voice took a petulant tone, “You were supposed to answer your phone!”

“ETA 15 minutes.” Virginia stated, concentrating on his speech, and cut the channel before Hiro could protest.

He had to clean another nosebleed before he left.

 

* * *

 

Cass knew something was wrong the moment Virginia walked up the stairs instead of coming in the window. She still couldn’t hear him, but the way he sat down at the bar in the kitchen was very telling.

“The boys were worried.” Cass handed him an apple, “You were all over the news.”

“Unavoidable. Alistair Krei is a public figure.” Virginia ate the apple in two bites and accepted the second one Cass handed him.

“I see.” Cass nodded slowly, processing what she was being told, “Will you be okay?”

“Yes.”

“You’re bleeding.” She kept her voice level, knowing the boys were waiting on her signal to rush down.

“It isn’t uncommon.” Virginia wiped the blood from his nose away with a napkin, “They’re creeping down the stairs.”

“Are you ready for them?”

“I will be okay.” Virginia threw away the remains of the apple and turned the chair around.

“Boys, come down.” She paused, then added, “Nicely please.”

Tadashi was first down the stairs, carrying a red box in his arms. Hiro followed, his nose buried in the screen from Virginia’s armor.

News reports, Virginia noted as Tadashi pulled out a tablet of his own and typed a series of commands into it. Hiro put the screen away as Baymax inflated.

“Boys!” Cass hissed.

“We need to make sure he’s okay!” Tadashi insisted, the collar of his shirt firmly in his mouth.

Hiro nodded, hijacking his brother’s tablet and setting Baymax to scan Virginia.

“Hello Virginia.” Baymax greeted, “I am going to scan you now. How would you rate your pain?”

“Zero, I am experiencing no pain.” Virginia stated, “And there is no need to scan me. My injuries are already healing.”

Both brother’s whined in protests, but a finger from Virginia silenced them.

“I am satisfied with my care.”

“Virginia!” Tadashi furiously attempted to counter the shutdown procedure, “Let us help you!”

Virginia rose to his feet and scooped both boys up at the same time, loosening his grip when they yelped.

“I am fine. I merely need to rest. Being here would be easier than in my base.” Virginia tilted his head, “You sounded worried.”

“We were worried.” Hiro mumbled, wriggling so that he was comfortable in Virginia’s arms, “You led a chase through the city.”

Virginia’s smile looked forced, “It is Tuesday.”

Cass watched, half amused and half disbelieving, as Virginia talked the boys down from the panic they had worked themselves into. She had to be impressed, not because he was calming them down, but because he was doing it while being in an odd mood himself. The boys didn’t consciously notice it, they would later, but how he talked was more mechanical than usual and that was a dead giveaway

But he wasn’t hurting them, she knew he wouldn’t intentionally, and that’s all that mattered. With that in mind, she declined to join them for their movie and simply fetched Tadashi’s bear and Hiro’s pacifier and left them on the couch. She had a TV in her room and she doubted that they would appreciate the monster movies in their mindset.

She did sneak out there hours later to take a picture of the three of them asleep on the couch. Virginia in the middle sandwiched between the boys; Tadashi with his legs over the arm and head on the older man’s lap, and Hiro curled in a ball and pressed close.

She had no idea how they could fall asleep like that. It must be youth.

 

* * *

 

Hiro and Tadashi were plotting.

To be more specific, Hiro was plotting and Tadashi was attempting to calm his brother’s ideas.

They had run off to Tadashi’s lab under the pretense that Tadashi needed Hiro’s help with his project. It had been a bit of a struggle to get out the door, Virginia making them get dressed, and changed in Hiro’s case, while Aunt Cass had shoved some semblance of breakfast down their throats. The only reason they ate was because Virginia gave his word that he would be there when they got back barring a emergency that would require Agent V.

“We can help him!” Hiro insisted, “We have all the material, just none of the drive!”

“Hiro, we can’t just manufacture costumes and gadgets and become superheroes.” Tadashi countered, “That takes training we don’t have!”

“Yes, yes. It’ll get us killed. Like running into a burning building.”

“Or chasing a superhero into a shipping yard at night.” Tadashi shot back, feeling bad when Hiro winced a bit.

“He’s done so much for us.” Hiro stated, “We need to pay him back somehow.”

“We can’t endanger our lives though. It’s a bad idea.”

The brother’s stared at each other for a few moments and Tadashi sighed.

“You’re going to do it anyway aren’t you?” Hiro nodded, his face showing hints of red, “The I guess I’ll have to do it with you just to make sure you don’t get hurt.”

“Yes!” Hiro cheered, “I already have some ideas of what to do. For you, I was thinking…”

The door slid open with a bang and both boys froze, praying Virginia hadn’t found them. They let out the breath they had been holding when they saw it was Fred, standing there with his jaw open, and the rest of Tadashi’s friends behind him.

“Hey Fred.” Tadashi took a step in front of Hiro, “What’s up?”

“What’s up?” Fred asked incredulously, “What’s up? Dude, you were about to become superheroes and not even tell me about it! That’s like, my lifelong dream!”

“I want no part in this.” Wasabi stated, folding his arms, “It’s crazy. And you’re crazy for thinking it’s a good idea.”

“It’s to help a friend!” Hiro poked his head around Tadashi, grateful his pacifier was shoved in a pocket in Tadashi’s bag, “And it’s not crazy if we do it right!”

“Hiro, shut up.” Tadashi growled, pushing Hiro back behind him.

But the damage was already done.

“You KNOW a superhero!”

“We can’t tell you that.” Tadashi knew it was hopeless at this point, but it didn’t stop him from trying.

“So you do! Awesome!” Fred cheered, “We are so making this a team! It’s our origin story!”

“We? Fred, I didn’t agree to this.” Wasabi pointed out, “I expressly said that I wanted nothing to do with it.”

“It’s dangerous.” Honey Lemon agreed, “But more dangerous is you go alone.”

Gogo popped her gum, “It’s dangerous to go alone. Take us with you.”

Hiro buried his face in Tadashi’s shirt to hide the giggle. Tadashi rolled his eyes and groaned, it was like an avalanche: no control once it got going.

“I’m outvoted here aren’t I?” Wasabi sighed.

“Yep.” Fred nodded, “Totally our origin story.”

Tadashi turned and crouched down to talk to his brother, pulling the smaller Hamada brother’s shorts up to cover the pull-up.

“We are going to get in so much trouble.” He half growled, half whined as he adjusted Hiro’s pants.

“Probably.”

“We need to not do this Hiro.”

“Rule 6.”

“I hate rule 6.” Tadashi grumbled as he rose to his feet, “Let’s get to work then.”

Virginia was going to be so mad.

* * *

 

In hindsight, Hiro acknowledged that coming into the field for the first time with half tested prototypes might be a terrible idea. Not that everything didn’t work as planned, he had been worried about Honey’s box and Wasabi’s blades, but he could feel the minor glitches as he zoomed around on Tadashi’s back.

He would also admit, and only to his brother or Virginia, he was terrified and possibly a little wet.

But they were losing the fight against Yokai, the masked man outthinking them at every turn.

“Hiro, use that big brain of yours and think of something!” Tadashi growled out as he strafed to the side and launched one of his rocket-fists.

It was a distraction and nothing more, it was a losing battle.

Why, Hiro thought to himself, did he think he could take on someone who could take on Agent V?

“Focus Hiro!” Tadashi reminded him, rolling to the side.

He couldn’t. He couldn’t think of any solution, all he could see was those black waves trying to crush him.

Hiro was frozen.

That’s when an explosion echoed from above them and Agent V, with his visor glowing red instead of the normal blue, crashed into the ground amidst the falling debris. Hiro stared in awe as the more experienced hero burst into action, dodging around the waves and landing a massive punch on Yokai.

Then he turned to the assembled six new heroes, “Get out of here.”

Hiro flinched at the hollow, mechanical tone. Tadashi had been right: they were in so much trouble.

“NOW!”

As they bolted for the doors, Yokai rose to his feet on a wave of micro-bots to block their way. His mask was cracked down the middle, revealing the cold eyes of Professor Callaghan. Hiro swore that, under his brother’s armored suit, he could feel his brother tense up. The very man he nearly died saving was here and trying to kill them.

“Tadashi….” Hiro warned as his brother’s stance shifted and the thrusters began to whine aa they charged.

“Get out, NOW!”

Virginia’s shout was punctuated with a flying I-beam, that stole Callaghan’s attention from blocking the door. When Hiro heard the crackling of electricity, he ordered the retreat through everyone’s communicators.

“We have to leave!”

“But Callaghan!” Tadashi growled, the only voice of dissent in the group.

“V will handle that!” Hiro cut him off, “We need to go now!”

 

* * *

 

“Idiots. All of you. You lack the training and the experience to go out and attempt what you just did.”

The most unnerving part, Tadashi noted to himself, was how Virginia managed to stay calm while angrily ranting. It was like hearing some read a list of every wrongdoing you had ever done and make you feel just as guilty for jaywalking as getting arrested.

He really, really, wanted to chew on his shirt. But between the armor and his friends, he couldn’t get away with it.

“If I hadn’t shown up when I did, do you know what would have happened? All of you would have died and nobody would have been able to find your bodies. Yokai is more than willing to kill you, innocents or heroes. You saw the battle we had the other day throughout the city, do you know how many were injured?”

“Sixty five injured.” Wasabi spoke up, “And three dead.”

“And this stunt would have added six more casualties to that list.”

“We’re adults. We can choose to do this.” Gogo spoke up, staring Virginia down.

Tadashi was impressed at how she didn’t flinch when Virginia’s gaze bored into her, his armor flaring up in response to his anger.

“Yes, you are eighteen.” Virginia nodded, “legal adults who can choose to put on armor and save the day. But you’re also capable of being tried as an adult for endangering a minor.”

Everybody froze and Tadashi spotted Hiro curling in on himself on his spot on Virginia’s ratty couch.

“You five adults took one thirteen year old boy, a minor, into a life or death situation. That is jail time.” His gaze landed on Tadashi, “You would lose Hiro to the system in a heartbeat.”

“We just wanted to help!” Hiro finally shouted, tossing his helmet across the room, “That’s all we wanted to do! You were losing each time you confronted Yokai, you needed an edge. So I thought, what if we suited up and helped you? Me and Tadashi could be that edge. Then they joined in and we couldn’t—”

“Pick it up.” Virginia cut him off, jabbing a armored finger at Hiro’s discarded helmet.

“What?”

“Pick your helmet up. Rule one is always take care of your equipment.”

Hiro scrambled under Virginia’s glare and quickly retrieved his helmet. Virginia ran his hand through his hair, tugging at the green strands.

“I can’t stop you and I can’t abandon you. He knows everything about you, having had access to all your personal records when he was your teacher. This means that the only option I have is to make sure you’re truly ready for this. Be back here tomorrow morning by 10am. And be prepared for the fight of your lives. Dismissed.”

Everyone made their way out slowly, contemplating what was going to happen tomorrow.

“Not you two.”

Hiro and Tadashi froze and Tadashi had no idea why he expected to get away with just that slap on the wrist.

 

Both brothers were in tears when Virginia hung up the phone, Cass having simultaneously tore them a new one and expressed her relief that they were okay. Virginia had plenty more he could say, he had a hundred things easily off the top of his head, but he recognized that the two boys were too far gone for what he had to say to do any good. Instead, after helping them take their armor off, he placed them far from each other and facing the wall.

Then he took his time taking his own armor off, the ritualistic action setting his mind at ease. A tiny hit of frustration set in as he placed the pieces in the cradle to be repaired, he just finished making all those cosmetic repairs this morning. For the sake of practicing social norms, he pulled on a pair of ratty sweatpants and sat down.

“Come here, both of you.”

They shuffled their way over, Tadashi’s shirt already damp and Hiro’s thumb was firmly in place.

“I’m not going to go over this again. I’ve said my piece, your Aunt has said her’s. Anything else gets said tomorrow. But understand one thing: You will never, ever, pull a stunt like this again. If you want to help me, you come to me and tell me, not run off half-cocked with a bad idea. If it does happen again,” Virginia’s eyes glinted like rough emeralds, “I will ruin you and your futures, no matter how bright you are. Understood?”

Both boy’s nodded.

“Good. Now lay down and get some sleep, you have a long day tomorrow.”

Tadashi shuffled a bit and Hiro shook his head.

“What’s the matter?”

“Don’t want to be alone.” Tadashi mumbled, shifting from foot to foot.

“I’ll be here Tadashi, but my couch won’t fit me and you two. Go lay down.” Tadashi shuffled off and Virginia looked at Hiro, “You’re wet aren’t you?”

Hiro nodded and tugged at his shorts, “Leaked.”

“Alright, I don’t have pants for you but we can at least get you cleaned up. Come on.”

He didn’t tell them that he wouldn’t be sleeping tonight, not that he needed more than three hours every two weeks. He was going to spend all night upgrading their suits for tomorrow. Hiro did great for a beginner but there were so many holes.

Hiro, for example, didn’t have enough armor to protect himself.


	5. Outcomes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They've chosen to go through the fire. How will the be when they come out the other side?

Tadashi grunted as he was slammed into the side of a building, Honey’s cushion barely absorbing any of the impact, and quickly activated his rockets to catch Hiro before his brother could crash into a car.

  
“What’s the plan Hiro?” He asked as Hiro attached himself to his back.

  
“Fred’s been taken out and Honey is still routing the civilians. Me, Gogo and Wasabi were holding him off but…”

  
Tadashi got the idea as Wasabi was sent flying with Gogo following close behind him.

  
“New approach?”

  
“We need to get that mask, that’s the key.” Hiro mumbled as Tadashi took off into the sky to avoid a hit, “Honey, are the civilians clear?”

  
“All clear.” Honey chimed in, “Last of them crossing city limits now.”

  
“And Fred?” Tadashi asked, firing off one of his rocket fists.

  
“He’s out for the count. Nothing serious but he won’t be up for a while.”

  
“Then we need you here. I have a plan.” Hiro added in as Tadashi performed a quick barrel roll to catch the returning fist.

  
“I hope it’s a good one.” Virginia’s voice cut in as a car soared through the air towards them.

  
“Pulse!” Tadashi barked and Hiro’s magnetic pulse barely deflected the incoming vehicle in time.

  
“Honey, Gogo, Wasabi, take the armor.” Hiro triple encrypted the comm channel quickly as Tadashi regained his balance, “Try and break line of sight. Me and Tadashi ae going for the mask.”

  
With a unified affirmative, the two teams split into action.

* * *

 

Wasabi quickly pulled up a map of the section ofthe city they were in and marked a back alley, “Gogo, can you get it here? If we set an ambush we should be able to distract it long enough.”

  
“Got it.” Gogo nodded, marking it on her HUD, “Just make sure you have something to keep it down for the count.”

  
“I might have something.” Honey nodded, the look on her face implying that she was doing quick, complex calculations.

  
“Then let’s go. Good luck.” Wasabi nodded to Gogo before they set off to enact their plan.

* * *

 

Hiro ran the calculations as Tadashi dived towards where Virginia was standing amidst all the chaos. It was a risky plan, but if the others could keep the armor busy they might have a chance to get the mask.

  
Virginia didn’t wait to talk, tossing a huge chunk of rubble at them as soon as they landed. The brothers split and Virginia targeted Hiro first, launching a series of blows that Hiro only managed to block half of. Tadashi was there a heartbeat later, breaking the barrage up with a kick of his own. Hiro took that moment to roll under his brother and snatch at the mask. Virginia caught the kick with one hand and countered Hiro’s grab with another throw. Twisting in midair, Hiro managed to land on his feet with a grunt as Tadashi launched another series of attacks, using the micro-thrusters in his suit to speed up his attacks. Hiro saw his opportunity as Virginia caught one of Tadashi’s attacks and leapt forward.

* * *

 

“I’m coming in hot!”

  
Gogo’s voice was a welcome sound as Wasabi and Honey waited in cover, the time it had taken the speedster to check in had worried them. The armor, even when Virginia was distracted, was deadly and could take them out if they weren’t careful.

  
Just like it had Fred.

  
Wasabi nodded to Honey as Gogo drew closer, his hands full of her containment solutions ready in his hands. Honey returned the nod and quickly tapped away on her bag, her fingers dancing with a strong sense of urgency.

  
As soon as Gogo zoomed by, and the terrifying whine of the Armor moving at high speeds filled his ears, Wasabi tossed all the solutions as fast as he could. His timing had to be perfect, too soon or too late and their plan would fail with fatal consequences.

  
Wasabi had never been so happy to see foam in his life as the armor was locked up. Experience told him it wouldn’t last long, the foam was already straining to contain it, but Honey’s timing was as impeccable as his as she launched the black sphere.

  
“Hit it now!” Honey shouted as a rust-red cloud enveloped the armor.

  
Gogo was faster than him, launching one of her disks at fatal speeds. There was a thunk as it embedded itself in the wall opposite her.

  
Than the helmet thudded onto the ground.

  
Wasabi whirled into action, grim determination etched into his face as he dismembered the suit limb by limb.

* * *

 

Virginia grabbed Hiro’s outstretched arm and slammed both boys into the ground in one fluid motion. A kick to the ribs sent Tadashi into a storefront as Virginia lifted Hiro into the air by the helmet. Their eyes met for a moment and Hiro made an attempt to free himself. It was all in vain as Hiro found himself colliding with his charging brother, unable to bite back the scream from the impact of the rocket propelled tackle.  
Virginia took advantage of Tadashi’s distraction, he was kneeling and attempting to comfort his brother, and slammed his knee into the boys head with enough force to crack the armored helmet. Hiro gasped as Tadashi crumpled to the ground, but Virginia had subdued him with a quick stop to the chest.

  
Then he stumbled, hands cradling his head as his nose started to bleed.

  
“Now!” Hiro rasped.

  
“Super-Kick!”

  
Virginia was unable to stop the kick to the face and the mask shattered as Fred flipped away and prepared for another kick.

  
“Simulation complete.”

  
Virginia strode forward, like nothing had happened, as the city around them disappeared in a wave of pixels, pulling Tadashi to his feet and checking the boy’s eyes.

  
“Go get cleaned up. You all did well.” Virginia let Tadashi, having not found any signs of a concussion.

  
The team gave a weak cheer and helped each other back to the locker room as Virginia gave the silent command for his armor to reassemble. It was regrettable, Virginia mused as he ordered his armor to the repair station, that he had to take the violent path to get them ready. He hadn’t decided to use it lightly, this method of training ran an 80% chance of irreparable psychological harm to all the trainees.

  
Virginia keyed the last command and watched the repair chamber seal itself, using the reflective surface to clean the dried blood from his face.  
It was better than the 100% chance that they would die if they faced Yokai unprepared.

* * *

 Tadashi bit back a wince as he pulled the helmet from his head, he had saved it for last on purpose, and inspected the spiderweb of cracks branching their way across the red metal and onto the visor. If he had been hit harder, or if it had been the prototype suits, he might not have been able to walk away from a hit like that.

  
He really needed to thank Virginia for that.

  
“Here,” Honey offered him an ice pack that Tadashi took with a muttered thanks, “You might not have a concussion but you need to keep that swelling down.”

  
“I’d need a tub of ice of that,” Tadashi hissed as he pressed the pack to his face, “I feel like a giant bruise.”

  
“I’m sure Virginia could arrange that if you asked.” Honey joked as she readjusted her bag, “I feel like I could sleep for a week.”

  
“Sleep is for the weak.” Tomogo added in as she walked by, “Pizza is better. You want in?”

  
“I could go for some. Tadashi?”

  
“Yeah, we could.” Nobody mentioned how he answered for both himself and Hiro, “Pizza sounds amazing.”

  
“Pizza? Awesome! I know the perfect place.” Fred added as he made his way in.

  
“Who invited you?” Tomogo said, her smirk being the only indication she was joking.

  
“You wound me Gogo. Right in the heart. Wasabi, you’ll eat pizza with me right?” Fred leaned dramatically against the taller boy, who shoved him away.

  
“I’ll eat with you the day you learn what napkins are. And how to chew with your mouth closed.” Wasabi shuddered a moment, “But I could definitely go for some pizza.”

  
“Perfect circle, even number of slices.” Tadashi added as he stored he helmet and pulled out his hat, “Wasabi, I’m amazed you eat any other food.”

  
“It’s the toppings.” Wasabi muttered, “They’re never even.”

  
Tadashi smiled at the banter, he had missed it in recent weeks, but it faded slightly when he realized that his brother was missing. Excusing himself from the conversation, they were debating the ‘perfect pizza’, Tadashi quickly homed in on his brother’s hiding spot.

  
The younger brother was sprawled out on one of the benches behind the armor racks, hood pulled over his head.

  
“Hey,” Tadashi sat next to his brother on the bench, “we’re going to go get pizza.”

  
Hiro shook his head.

  
“I know.” Tadashi felt the same way, “But they’re our friends and we owe them this much. Ya know, hanging out with them without being in mortal peril.”

  
“Ice cream.” Hiro mumbled as he sat up.

  
“We can definitely do that.” Tadashi smiled as he fixed his brother’s shirt, couldn’t leave his pull-up poking out for every genius in the room to see.

  
“Hurry up or we’re leaving you.”

  
Tadashi clamped down on the attack instinct as Tomago surprised them, his hand on Hiro’s waist being the only thing stopping the smaller boy. She had a smirk on her face but he didn’t miss the small disks she slipped back into her coat pocket.

  
“Yeah, we’re coming.” Tadashi pulled Hiro up and kept a tight hold on his hand, “I hope you’re not driving Tomago, I’d like to make it there in one piece.”

  
“Wimp.” She shot back as she turned.

  
“Ice cream.” Hiro insisted.

  
“Yeah, we won’t forget.” Tadashi reassured his brother, “Pizza and ice cream.”

* * *

Virginia was restless in a way he hadn’t been in a very long time. He now had a team, one he was mentoring, and it was going against every instinct to let them be out and about without going with them or shadowing them because there was an active villain after them. There was also the fact two members were suffering trauma and the other four were at risk for aftereffects of his training.

  
On the other hand, Virginia thought as he keyed a few commands on a keypad, he knew that space was critical to them at this point in time. How they settled after training, weather they were truly stronger for it or cracked under the strain, was important.

  
Several sheets of metal, varying in size, came flying at Virginia from multiple angles and he knocked them aside or dodged with ease.  
That’s why he had settled for bugging them. Any radical changes in their vitals would trigger an alarm and he would respond.

  
The sound of rending metal filled the air of the empty base as Virginia continued his training, upping the speed to near-maximum.  
They would be okay, he would be sure of it.

* * *

 “I thought you lived under a bridge.”

  
Tadashi nearly choked on his ice cream as Tomago spoke up. Sure, the large mansion hadn’t been what he had expected when Fred said they were going to eat the pizza at his place but he didn’t say it.

  
He quickly pulled his cone out of Hiro’s reach as the smaller boy tried to take it. His brother was exhausted and hungry, which meant if he had to keep walking he would go from adorable Mogwai to evil Gremlin.

  
Tadashi was not in the mood for that, nor was he in the mood to share his ice cream. It was his and it was Hiro’s fault he ate it so fast. With that in mind, he snagged his brother’s hand and followed his teammates into Fred’s mansion. He nodded politely at the butler, nudging Hiro to do the same, before starting to follow the group through the halls.

  
Hiro was giggling at Fred’s narrations of the various portraits when Tadashi heard a polite cough as the butler fell slightly in step with him.

  
“In the event either you or your brother require the bathroom, I highly recommend using the one four doors to the right of master Fred’s room.”

  
Tadashi blinked, a half formed question ready to fall out of his mouth, but the butler had already made his way to opening the door to Fred’s room and ushering them inside.

  
“Whoa.” Tadashi gasped.

  
“Awesome.” Hiro stole Tadashi’s ice cream before it fell.

  
Tadashi had expected some superhero stuff in Fred’s room, it was a given, but there was just so much. The comics were organized on the shelves, there were replica costumes in display cases, and a giant TV dominated a large part of the wall.

  
“So, what do we watch first?” Fred’s grin was huge as he gestured to a set of shelves stacked with DVD’s.

* * *

 Cass was closing down the shop, it was poetry night so she had been open later than usual, when the door chimed. She really should learn to lock the door first before closing down, she thought with a sigh, this happened far too many times for her liking.

  
“How can I help you? Sorry, I was closing up so there’s not much left.”

  
“I was actually hoping that you could recommend some movies to watch.” A very familiar voice responded.

  
Cass nearly dropped the pot as she turned around to look at the speaker, “Virginia? Why are you here? And asking about movies?”

  
Virginia’s head tilted for a second, a sign she had come to learned he was strongly considering his next answer, before he responded.

  
“There is no crime happening tonight. It makes patrolling boring and unnecessary.”

  
“Hiro and Tadashi?” She pushed. Sure they had called her but their story might be different from what Virginia could tell her.

  
“With their friends.”

  
The twitch of the hand told her all she needed to know: he was giving them space and having a hard time doing it.

  
“Are they safe?” That was her only concern, well her only important one with the boys right now.

  
“Safe, yes.” A small smirk tugged at the corners of his mouth, “Dry, probably not.”

  
“Both of them? That’d be something new.” She chuckled as she moved around him to lock the door, “But I have more than my fair share of movies, have you ever seen _Tremors_?”

  
“I…haven’t watched a lot of movies.”

  
“What do you know about monster prehistoric worms?” The grin was working its way across her face, she needed a new movie buddy.

  
“You need explosive ordinance to take them out.” Virginia stated seriously before adding, “Or a really sharp machete depending on the size.”

  
“Then you’re really going to like Burt. Come on, I’ll make some popcorn and we’ll relax.” When he hesitated to follow her up the stairs she added, “The boys will call one of us if they need us.”

  
“Alright.” He agreed slowly, “But shouldn’t you finish closing up?”

  
“Oh. Yeah.” She groaned, just as she had gotten excited about movies.

  
“I will help.” Suddenly he was behind her, holding the broom gingerly, “Sweeping is something I can do.”

* * *

 

It was inevitable that, Tadashi realized in hindsight, Hiro was going to fall asleep. The boy had eaten half a pizza, voted on a comedy, claimed a spot on the floor next to Tadashi, and was asleep ten minutes into the movie. The other’s had made a few comments about how cute he was, and Honey had taken a picture, but Tadashi had managed to get a blanket on him before the thumb made its way into his mouth.  
When the movie was finished, Tadashi carefully sidestepped the debate for the next movie and stepped over his brother. He had to go potty and if he didn’t go now….well, he didn’t want to think about that right now. With that in mind, he carefully counted the doors and slipped into the bathroom the butler had mentioned.

  
When he flicked the light on, his went red. It was clearly a child’s bathroom, Fred’s from ages ago if the superhero motif was anything to go by. Step-stools, potty seats, a cabinet with pull-ups stacked on top of them. The room was clean but clearly hadn’t seen use in a number of years.  
Tadashi hesitated, eyeing the toilet and the attached potty seat. He could probably make it to the bathroom Fred had mentioned if he ran. He didn’t want to use this toilet, not really. It would have been perfect for Hiro though, most toilets were a bit too big for him and he always ran the risk of falling in.

  
It was in that moment his bladder twitched, causing his hands to fly to his crotch as some pee spurted out. Almost as if it was telling him no, he couldn’t make it to another bathroom when there was a perfectly good one in front of him.

  
Tadashi decided, as he sat on the seat peeing, Hiro would never find out about this. And that one of these seats might find their way into the brothers’ bathroom.

  
For Hiro. So he wouldn’t fall in.

  
Then he eyed the pull-ups stacked neatly on the stand. He didn’t need one, he didn’t pee himself. But he was sleeping here, and he didn’t know he wouldn’t have an accident when he was asleep. And maybe, just maybe, he was the tiniest bit possibly curious.

  
Besides, nobody would know.

* * *

 

“Ass blasters is a completely ridiculous name.” Virginia stated as he kept his eyes on the screen, “And you would think they would be prepared with more than those trivial defense measures.”

  
Virginia fought back the small grin as Cass threw popcorn at him, he understood enough that he wasn’t constantly questioning the movie but he also knew that she enjoyed the banter. Well, he hoped so, she was only throwing popcorn and not the remote.

  
The two fell back into their comfortable silence, broken up by the crunching of popcorn, and Virginia found himself enjoying it far more than he had thought he would. Cass Hamada was good company.

  
Then their phones went off simultaneously and they both scrambled for them, hoping it wasn’t an emergency. Especially considering it was coming from Tadashi’s phone.

  
Virginia opened the message and snorted to himself as Cass cooed over the picture. It had clearly been taken by Honey, Virginia could pick out the others in the background. Hiro and Tadashi were curled up together on the floor, Hiro’s thumb in his mouth and Tadashi chewing on his shirt.

  
Taking a closer, Virginia chuckled before zooming in and showing Cass.

  
“I told you so.”

  
Looking close enough, Tadashi’s shirt rode up just the slightest and the blanket wasn’t quite fully covering him and the blue of a pull-up was poking out above his waistband. Internally Virginia sighed in relief; everyone was safe and stable.

  
20% chance of success indeed.


	6. The Calm

Hiro and Tadashi were in a frightfully good mood as the strolled through the front entrance of the café, casually shooting ideas back and forth to upgrade the advanced scanners in Hiro’s helmet with ones Tadashi had installed in Baymax. They had parted ways with the rest of their team shortly after eating breakfast together, everyone had work to catch up on or start.   
  
“Welcome to the Lucky Cat Café, how can I help you today?” a familiar voice spoke from behind the counter, the tone flat and even.  
  
The boys froze mid debate and focused their full attention on the man behind the counter of the store. Virginia hadn’t even turned to face them, his attention focused on measuring out the right amount of coffee grounds to put in the various machines.  
  
Hiro giggled at the sticky notes above each machine, each covered with various measurements and instructions written in Aunt Cass’ handwriting.  
  
Tadashi let out a noise somewhere between a groan and a whine, “Is that my shirt?”  
  
“Yes it is. Cass lent it to me so I was dressed appropriately to work the counter.” Virginia didn’t spare them a glance, gingerly pressing the start button on the last machine before turning around.  
  
“You stretched it out.” Tadashi grumbled, “I liked that shirt.”  
  
Virginia frowned as he stared at the form fitting shirt, “I..apologize? I was unaware that it was a favored shirt.”  
  
“It’s not.” Hiro snorted, walking behind the counter and pulling at the gray shirt, “He never wears that shirt. He’s just being a baby about it.”  
  
“No children behind the counter.” Virginia said over Tadashi’s sputtering as he lifted Hiro back over the counter, “Did you have fun?  
  
“Yeah!” The boys exclaimed at the same time, causing the few patrons in lingering around to shoot them a confused look.  
  
“Good.” Virginia nodded to himself, “Your aunt is waiting upstairs. She is making you two lunch.”  
  
At the mention of food, Hiro’s stomach rumbled and he made a mad dash up the stairs, shouting to his Aunt. Tadashi followed at a slower pace, shuffling his feet as he walked.  
  
Virginia tilted his head as Tadashi walked by, “Tadashi, come here for a second.”  
  
Blinking, and more than a little confused, Tadashi turned on his heel and made his way to Virginia, “Yeah?”  
  
“The point of a pull-up is to catch what it can in case you don’t make it to the bathroom in time.” Virginia stated, keeping his voice low, “It leaking out the sides is usually a sign it is time to change.”  
  
Tadashi went red as he found himself aware of the wet patch on the back of his leg and how uncomfortable the pull-up he had on felt between his legs.  
  
“I-I didn’t notice.” He mumbled, his hands fidgeting with the collar of his shirt.  
  
“It happens.” Virginia stated, “Go change and see your Aunt.”  
  
Tadashi nodded and scurried his way up the stairs, trying his best to avoid walking funny.  
  
Virginia nodded to himself, the gesture checking off an item on his HUD, and returned to the register. At the sight of a customer Virginia squared his shoulders and repeated the line Cass instructed him to use on customers.  
  
“I wonder what that’s about.” Cass mused aloud as Tadashi bolted his way up the stairs.  
  
“He leaked.” Hiro stated around a mouthful of pancake, “He just realized it.”  
  
“Don’t talk with your mouth full.” Cass chided, “And if you noticed, why didn’t you say anything to him?”  
  
“It only happened a block back.” Hiro shrugged, “Didn’t see the point.”  
  
Cass shook her head, “Because it was more fun to see him embarrassed.”  
  
Hiro’s smirk was all the answer Cass needed, so she busied herself making Tadashi’s plate for him before Hiro decided to eat all of the brunch she had made. Hiro had mentioned how they ate a light breakfast at Fred’s place, the butler had insisted on at least bagels, but they definitely had room for her pancakes, especially after the walk back home.  
  
“I didn’t notice.” Tadashi grumbled as he made his way to his chair, hat pulled down low in embarrassment, “’s not my fault.”  
  
Hiro snorted, “You left a trail on the sidewalk.”  
  
“I did not!” Tadashi stomped his foot, “It was just a little bit!”  
  
“All down your pants.” Hiro teased, enjoying his rare moment of having the upper hand.  
  
“Aunt Cass!” Tadashi whined, shooting her a pleading look, “Make him stop!”  
  
“Boys, not at my table.” Cass kept her voice firm and levelled both boys with a stern look, “Eat.”  
There was silence for the next few moments as the boys dug into their food, Hiro making a bigger mess than usual and Tadashi using his fingers more than his fork, especially as his fingers got sticky.  
  
“Tadashi, please use a napkin.” Cass sighed as she watched the boy wipe his sticky hands across his pants.  
  
“Why is Virginia working the counter?” Hiro asked, a slight pout as the last pancake went to Tadashi.  
  
“Oh, he spent the night here.” Cass replied, “When I talked about cooking you two food when you got home, he offered to watch the shop.”  
  
“Why did he spend the night?” Tadashi asked around a mouthful of food, relishing in getting the last pancake over Hiro.  
  
It might be childish, but he rarely ever got it so he was going to enjoy it.  
  
“We were watching movies. Can you believe he’s never seen Tremors?” Cass shook her head in exasperation, “His movie education is sorely lacking. I’m thinking on starting him on monster movies next time, you know to keep with the theme of monsters and such.”  
  
“Monster or Kaiju?” Tadashi frowned, “I’m not sure which he would like more.”  
  
“Kaiju!” Hiro almost shouted, “They’re the best!”  
  
What was left of their food was set aside in favor of the Great Debate. It was an old, comfortable, debate at the Hamada table that pitted one preferred movie genre against another. Tadashi smiled to himself as Aunt Cass leapt to the defense of her western monsters, while Hiro was adamant about the superiority of his Kaiju. Tadashi tried his best to stay out of it and eat the Last Pancake, his preference for Sci-Fi monsters precluded him from the purist version of the argument.   
Besides, he wasn’t feeling up to a debate today, or a monster movie. Maybe he’d curl up on his bed and watch a Disney movie.  
  
“The Kaiju in Pacific Rim do count!” Hiro’s voice rose an octave, “It’s in their name!”  
  
“Then I can use the Predators!” Cass shot back, “You’re moving into Sci-Fi territory Hiro and I have more monsters!”  
  
Yes, Tadashi decided as he picked up the last of his pancake with his fingers, a Disney movie would be awesome for today.  
  
“Disney.” He stated, timing it with one of their pauses, “Today is Disney.”  
  
Virginia furrowed his eyebrows as he focused his hearing back on the main floor of the Café. He had been starting to lose parts of the conversation when they started debating movies, which was unacceptable. He would have to pick up the pace with his own training again, it had fallen to the wayside with all the other things going on.  
  
Unacceptable, something like that would get himself killed.  
  
Then the bell to the shop rang and his attention focused on the crowd coming in for lunch. The number of people made his hand twitch towards the knife he had secreted away from upstairs, but he pulled his hand away and put on a disarming smile.  
  
“Welcome to the Lucky Cat Café, what can I get for you today?”  
  
Though he was curious as to what, exactly, a ‘Disney” was, he had to focus. This was just another form of training.

* * *

  
Virginia was, for the first time in weeks, training himself. He had been spending so much time with his newfound team, and the Hamadas, that his former training regiment had been watered down to the bare basics. It was unacceptable considering that he had a target to pursue.  
  
The black iron staff was an oddly comforting weight as he strode to the center of his makeshift training room, doing a few warm-up flourishes as he walked.   
  
“Run simulation Thermopylae Legend.” he called out as he performed one more complex flourish.  
  
“Loading simulation. Current record is Five minutes and two seconds. Are you ready to begin?”  
  
“Ready.”  
  
“Beginning simulation.”  
  
Virginia took a deep breath and focused as the simulation washed over him. Artifical wind blew at his clothes, a artificial sun beat down on him, and soon drum beats filled his ears. Half a mile away hordes of warriors, dressed as ancient Persian warriors, began to materialize and march forward. When the warriors were roughly two-hundred yards away Virginia charged, clearing the distance in seconds, and punched a warrior in the chest. Time seemed to slow down as Virginia’s fist ripped through the warrior and impacted the next with enough force to send him into the oncoming forces.  
  
Time sped back up and Virginia used his momentum to flip into the air, whipping his staff around at the heads of the closest warriors. He could hear their skulls shattering but paid it no mind as he used the momentum from the swing to twist and plant a kick in the chest of another enemy. He landed in a crouch, sweeping his staff in a wide circle to give himself room to plan. Virginia took a ready stance as he watched the enemy ranks swell around him, the warriors banging their shields and making feints at his back.  
  
Virginia took a deep breath and charged, his staff a black blur as he smashed and battered his way through the oncoming waves of enemies. The opposing AI wasn’t particularly intelligent, it merely adapted to tactics and responded within acceptable parameters to give the users a challenge. As a single unit proceeded to destroy half of its available units faster then they could adapt, the AI made the only choice it could within its constraints.  
  
Wrenching his staff out of the latest body,Virginia watched dispassionately as it dissolved in a flurry of pixels.  
  
“Time.”  
  
“Four minutes, thirty seconds.”  
  
Virginia tightened his grip on the staff, preparing himself for the dash across the virtual field, when a faint whistling reached his ears. His stance changed into a defensive one as the sky darkened with arrows.  
  
  
“Exercise complete. Time was fifteen minutes and forty-five seconds.”  
  
Virginia stretched out his muscles as the scenery faded back into the gray concrete walls, the barest hints of a frown marring his face.   
  
Ten minutes and forty three seconds over his best. Completely unacceptable, even for one of his warm up simulations.  
  
“Run it again.”  
  
“Beginning simulation.”  
  
  
“Exercise complete. Time was ten minutes and five seconds.”  
  
“Again.”  
  
“Beginning simulation.”  
  
  
“Exercise complete. Time was eight minutes zero seconds.”  
  
“Again.” Virginia grunted as he wiped the sweat off his face.  
  
“Beginning simulation.”  
  
  
“Simulation complete. Time was six minutes thirty seconds.”  
  
Virginia took a moment to catch his breath, his training clothes drenched in sweat, “Again.”  
  
“Beginning simulation.”  
  
  
“Simulation complete. Time was four minutes fifty-nine seconds. New record.”  
  
“Perfect.” Virginia muttered to himself as he caught his breath.  
  
It had been a long time since he had pushed himself that hard, to feel his muscles burn that way, and he had forgotten how much he enjoyed it.   
  
Being able to move and act without restraint was something he sorely missed.  
  
Dismissing those thoughts with a shake of his head, Virginia moved towards the door fully intent on taking a shower; his own stench was giving him a headache.

* * *

  
“Why are you here.”  
  
Gogo swore violently as she leapt back, her miniature disks flying from her fingers in the same motion. Three weeks ago, she would have stared in undisguised shock at how Virginia casually plucked them from the air before they reached anywhere close to hitting him.  
  
Now it just made her scowl as she accepted the disks back, “Planned on training.”  
  
Virginia’s head tilted slightly, in a very similar way to Baymax she noted, “Alone?”  
  
“Nobody else interested.” she shrugged as she resumed pulling on her armor.  
  
Virginia nodded to himself before turning on his heel and walking towards the exit. When he reached the door, he paused for a moment before looking over his shoulder at the suited up Gogo.  
  
“Coming?”  
  
Gogo refused to admit that she scrambled to follow him, but she refused to miss out on this opportunity


End file.
